


I am a Conversation

by SioDymph



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: F/F, Fever, Sick Character, Sickfic, Venom AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 02:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17716211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SioDymph/pseuds/SioDymph
Summary: After a risky heist breaking into a lab Ruby feels under the weather. And things just keep getting stranger and stranger...





	I am a Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a little one-shot idea I got in my head ever since watching Venom again alongside Diamond Days. Basically it’s an AU where many of the gems are human and work for this shady organization that brings back aliens from another planet. I may potentially make more little snippets in the future but for now this is just a one-shot. I hope you enjoy!

“Pearl? Pearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrllllll… Pearl! It’s Ruby!”

Pacing around her kitchen Ruby was practically screaming into her phone. Sweat clinging to her clothes in an uncomfortable way. And she felt so hot, like she was coming down with some sort of fever. And she was already hallucinating. Sometimes she swore she could hear some voice in her head grumbling at her. Sending another wave of freezing shudders through her body as it did so.

**_We’re starving. We need to eat food._ **

“Darn you! Why aren’t you answering?!” Ruby groaned, doing her best to ignore the disembodied voice. She kept hoping that Pearl would pick up her phone but it looked like she’d be leaving another message on her inbox. Probably the seventeenth one in an hour. Unheard of, yes, but she was desperate.

She kept opening and closing all the cabinets as if that would make more food suddenly appear. Despite feeling so nauseous she was starving. But no matter what she ate it never felt like enough. “Look! I have no idea why the heck you’re away from your phone but I really need your help here! I- I think something happened. Last night? You know, during _that whole thing_? Was any of that stuff under quarantine or something? Cause I’m feeling horrible right now! And not just normal sick, like really, _really_ -”

For a split second she lost all train of thought when she finally spotted some food. A massive bag of gummy bears hiding in the back corner of the pantry. Probably Amethyst’s personal stash. Not even thinking twice about what her roommate would say she ripped open the bag and shoved a fistful into her mouth. They were overly-sweet but at least for a moment she felt ok again. In a brief moment of clarity she wondered how she’d make this up to Amethyst. She could just go out and buy something else but with the whole fever-thing going on it didn’t seem like the safest choice.

Plus she was still like… super broke.

And all too quickly whatever relief the gummies gave her started ebbing away. It was nice but it wasn’t enough. She needed some real food.

“Ugh! I’m serious Pearl like I am not ok! Pleeeeaaase get back to me! I could really use your help here! Oh! And warn everyone else on the team, they might be getting sick too!”

The other night Ruby, Pearl and a small band of scientists and workers alike had infiltrated their own company’s lab to find incriminating evidence. Ever since returning from space the Diamond Foundation had gotten shadier about their current projects. And as time went on things were only getting worse. So much so that their small group had decided it was time to blow the whistle on this whole operation.

Their leaders had been Bismuth and Rose. Bismuth had been an architect, contracted to help build some recent additions to the Diamond Foundation facilities. And Rose was not just one of the main scientists working for the Diamond Foundation, but she also happened to be sister of two chairmen of the board and daughter of the founder herself.

By some stroke of luck their team managed to get in. And Ruby finally saw these so called symbiotes the Diamond Foundation had captured and brought back to earth for testing. She remembered seeing one up close, a weird mass of blue goo squirming around in a big, half-frozen tube. And one massive blue eye rising up out of the goo to stare right at her soul…

After that point things got blurry for Ruby. She blamed it on the adrenaline rush from the other night plus being super sick ever since. But that mental image of blue goo with a giant eye had been burned into Ruby’s mind.

Somehow she had gotten back to her apartment. Thankfully Amethyst had been staying over at her sister’s place so she didn’t have to see Ruby looking like a complete wreck. She really should have been more worried about anything like Amethyst’s reaction when she finally came home. Or worse, the Diamond Foundation finding out what she and her friends had been trying to do, tracking them down, and doing something horrible to them. But she had just felt so tired… The most she could do was hazily locked all the doors and windows and go to bed.

She only managed to get a few hours of sleep before waking up like this.

It took Ruby a few seconds to realize that she’d zoned out for a few minutes. The whole time she’d continued to ravenously eat the gummy bears. She’d already gotten through half the bag and the entire inside of her mouth felt coated in sweetness. And yet for some reason she couldn’t stop. She needed more.

The worst part was it didn’t even feel that satisfying. She needed some real food. Something that might actually fill her up. Despite the fever, she found herself craving meat…

**_If we don’t eat soon we will have to do something dire._ **

The voice was growing impatient. She could feel the voice again as another wave of shivers went down her spine, and once they were through Ruby realized how cold her hands felt now. She really needed to eat something with protein. But they didn’t have any in the house! The last meat they’d had was some fish tacos from a few nights ago but those had been dumped in the trash. The trash hadn’t been taken out yet, and she could smell them still so they were still near the top…

“No!” Ruby turned away when she realized she’d just been staring at the trashcan. “No way! That’s disgusting!”

There was no way she’d let herself do _that_. She’d just have to find something else. If she was going to start eating all of Amethyst’s candy, she might as well start eating all her other food too. Hopefully Amy wouldn’t be too pissed with her.

Only feeling slightly guilty she dug through Amethyst’s half of the freezer until she found her dino-nuggets. At first she planned on cooking them, but as she read the packaging she realized it’d be over half an hour before she’d even be able to eat.

**_That’s not soon enough!_ **

Not even being able to think twice she was ripping the bag open violently and pouring frozen nuggets into her mouth. That was the second time now she’d just impulsively eaten something. She didn’t even want to do it! Frozen dino-nuggets were so gross! But she was so hungry… It was like something came over her.

Stopping herself, she threw the rest of the frozen nuggets onto a baking sheet and shoved them into the oven. Hopefully in the half-hour it’s take them to bake she didn’t die of starvation… or make herself even sicker trying to eat those things frozen.

Ruby had no idea what’d gotten into her. She’d never felt this sick before in her entire life. From the hunger paired with nausea to the hallucinations to the constant hot and cold flashes, she felt like she was losing it.

“Once those dino’s are done they’ll be nice and hot. It’ll warm me up. We’ll be ok. Just gotta be a little patient…” Ruby said, hugging herself and rubbing her arms. Trying to get some warmth back in them as she looked down at herself. “And now I’m talking to myself. Perfect.”

Hating how sweaty-yet-cold she felt Ruby decided to go take a bath. Might as well do something while waiting for her food. She didn’t trust herself to stand for long, but she hoped maybe a warm bubble bath might be what she needed to get some control back over her body. And at least then she could motivate herself to get out of her old, gross, sweaty clothes and change into something cleaner afterwards.

The only bad thing about the apartment Amethyst and Ruby shared was the water. There was practically no pressure and it took forever to get any heat. So she started up the water and got ready while the bath slowly began to warm up.

Almost on impulse she checked herself in the bathroom mirror as she went to go grab her favorite soap from the sink. But before she could walk back towards the tub she had to do a double take on herself.

Was… was that a massive wrinkle on her forehead?

Using the mirror as a guide she brought her hand up to her forehead and sure enough she could see it and feel it now. There was a massive crease the stretched across the middle of her forehead. One that definitely hadn’t been there last night.

“What in the-”

Suddenly gripping the sink she had to stop herself from falling down as another massive chill went through her. And when she looked up again she looked even stranger.

Her lips… they looked… blue?

They started to move on their own. Outside of her control.

 

**_Ruby._ **

 

Then the fold on her forehead shifted and swelled up.

And when the seam finally broke there was suddenly a third eye on her forehead. Staring down at her.

 

**_RUBY!_ **

 

Screaming, Ruby threw herself back, slamming into the back of her bathroom, breaking some of the tile and toppling into the tub.

 

When she came to she found herself sitting in a pool of half-frozen sludge. And faintly she could hear the oven beeping.

She pulled herself back out of the bath tub, a few pieces of broken tile falling off her back as she did so.

And hesitantly, dreading what she might see, Ruby walked back over towards her bathroom sink to look at herself in the mirror. She didn’t even realize she was holding her breath until she saw her reflection and gave out a massive sigh in relief. No blue lips. No weird third eye. Just plain’ol Ruby.

“Ugh, I hope Pearl answers soon.” Ruby groaned to herself. Bringing her hands up to brush down her frazzled hair. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up!”

The oven continued to beep and Ruby was almost tempted to just let it go. At least until she could get a grip of herself.

But that hallucinated voice in her head spoke up again.

**_You need to get the dino’s out of the oven. If you don’t within the next five minutes they will burn._ **

“Alright, alright I’m going.” Ruby huffed, pushing herself away from the sink and stumbling back out of the bathroom.

It was only as she was pulling her dino-nuggets out of the oven that Ruby realized that she’d actually talked back to that voice.

“Weirdest fever ever.” Ruby muttered to herself, popping a few nuggets into her mouth. And just like that some of that painful hunger was finally gone. But it didn’t last forever. Each time it started coming back she’d eat a few more until she’d finished the entire tray.

That weird hunger was still there, and so were the hot flashes and shivers. But at least now they didn’t feel as strong as before. And at least for now, whatever weirdness was going on inside her was abated.


End file.
